Joseph F Moliero, Jr.

Joseph F. Moliero Jr., a combat veteran of the Blackhorse 11th Armored Cavalry and retired motorman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, died Friday, April 10, 2020, at Staten Island University Hospital South. He was 74. Born on April 19, 1945, in Ardmore, Oklahoma, his parents, Joseph and Kathryn Moliero, moved the family around often due to his father's U.S. Navy deployments. His sibling Judy said that even after all the moves, they always found their way back to Brooklyn - which is where, in 1959, the family settled into their infamous apartment on 88th St. and 4th Ave. in Bay Ridge where their parents would both spend the rest of their lives. Joe and Judy's mother had a hard to follow connection to her Native American origins - something that Joe's future wife Lena would go on to research and explore - but he loved to boast about his ''Choctaw Blood.'' Both Judy and Joe would go on to graduate from Fort Hamilton High School in 1964. The oldest of the two children, Joe would go on to become closer with his younger sister during their teen years. ''He worked at the department store, Abraham & Straus. We hung around the same people, playing pool and what not. He would drive us around in his beloved GTO,'' recalled his sister, Judy. Shortly thereafter, Joe would go on to be drafted for the Vietnam war where he served in the U.S. Army with the 11th Armored Cavalry Blackhorse Regiment. He served for thirteen months from 1966 to 1967 and was honorably discharged as a Specialist with The Good Conduct Medal. While he came back forever changed from his time spent overseas, he made lasting friendships with many of the men he served with. He was the king of nicknames, giving everyone he met a memorable name like Jimmy Papers or Paymaster. That knack for association would lead to an arsenal of stories that were considered larger than all those of his pals' stories combined. He proved himself to be an amazing man in the fields of Vietnam, to which the members of his regiment are forever grateful. Joe met his beloved wife of what would've been 50 years before her passing, Lena Masella, in 1967 on a blind date. He had just returned from Vietnam. Joe worked in a mailroom with Lena's cousin Vinny, who decided to try to set them up. His sister remembers him coming home from that date beaming, exclaiming ''I just met the nicest girl. She had the most beautiful hair.'' Three years later they were married and honeymooning in Bermuda. The young couple moved to Great Kills, Staten Island, in 1976. They raised their children Michael and Kathryn in a warm two-family home on Armstrong Avenue, and when the time came, Kathryn and her husband, Alex Duenas, elected to raise their family -- Joe's beloved grandchildren Jeremy and Michaela -- in the same place, upstairs. The Moliero household was a home away from home for many over the years. ''It was where I knew I was with family - a place that always felt right to me, and welcomed me as a Moliero before I ever was one'', Joe's daughter-in-law Karen recalled. ''The greeting that I got from mom in the kitchen calling my name every time I walked in, to seeing dad in his chair with a firm but loving ''Hello''- it was always so homey and comfortable.'' For decades that same home was the center of the annual family ritual of jarring the tomato sauce. Dozens of family members and neighbors would gather over a late August weekend and form an assembly line in the backyard, where they'd rinse, boil, crush, and bottle more than 100 crates of fresh plum tomatoes so that all the participating families would leave with a year's supply. But it wasn't just about making superb sauce; it was about laughing, feasting, drinking and enjoying each other's company, one weekend every year, come what may. Joe followed the plan of many New Yorkers. He found solace in a great city job, retired after 30 years with the Transit Authority to his growing family and kept himself busy working on cars, like his friend's 1965 Chevrolet Impala which won 1st prize at its first award show. The pair were known as The Cruise Brothers in the train yard. They worked their way up in the ranks and became Miscellaneous Motormen - motormen who could drive any of the work trains like garbage trains, flats and Joe's favorite, the money train. The two even went on to start their own landscaping business together - to which their wives took great care in helping manage the finances. In retirement Joe was able to spend more time with his cherished family, longer afternoons spent keeping every speck of dust off his precious Corvette in the driveway, more battles over food with the dog Bobby he ''inherited'' from his grandson and traveling the world with his Lena. They went to Italy almost a half dozen times, and visited parts of Europe, and the Caribbean, Hawaii and California. Among the most special trips were the one's Joe and Lena, a retired sought-after legal secretary and project manager, took every year to meet his buddies from the Vietnam War. The veterans of the 11th Armored Cavalry would gather in a different city annually. After decades apart, Joe reconnected with many of his oldest friends from the war and began to attend these reunions regularly - their entire year's travel revolved around the September dates of the reunion. As Joe got to share his stories - and as his friends recalled, ''Joey had the best recollection of all the guys. He remembered names, battles and stories nobody else did.'' Lena joined the ever-important group of ''Sweethearts'' and began to form her own lifelong friendships through her husband's Blackhorse Regiment. They would go on cruises and trips to the islands together. They all wanted to eat Lena's famous, fresh tomato sauce. So one year, Lena shipped six jars of sauce ahead to St. John, where a few of the couples were renting a house. It was an expensive proposition, but Joe and his friends got to enjoy one of his wife's wonderful Sunday dinners, a memory they'll forever cherish. Joe loved to give directions with shortcuts that were never short, share stories that sometimes blended together, and shoot the breeze with family and friends. He was an old soul with a deep love for his country, his cars and his larger than life family. He will be missed dearly. Joe's beloved wife Lena Moliero passed on January 9, 2019. They would've celebrated 50 years of their beautiful marriage this year. He was the loving father of Michael Moliero and Kathryn Duenas; the fond father-in-law of Karen Moliero and Alex Duenas; the dear big brother of Judy Moliero; and the devoted grandfather of Sabrina & Liliana Pizzuto, Jeremy & Michaela Duenas and Anthony Luongo. Joe is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and many friends. He also leaves behind his granddogs that kept him young, Bobby and Rose. The family will plan a memorial to receive friends and family to celebrate the life of Joseph F. Moliero Jr. with proper military honors at a later date. An intimate, family burial will happen April 13, 2020 at the Guardian Angel Memorial Park section of Forest Green Memorial Park Cemetery in Morganville, New Jersey.

Joseph F Moliero, Jr.

April 19, 1945 - April 10, 2020